The Governor's Council on Wednesday approved a sentence commutation for convicted murderer Ramadan Shabazz, opening the door for the 73-year-old to potentially win parole 50 years after he was initially sentenced to death for a pair of Dorchester homicides.

The unanimous vote came a day after councilors interviewed the Old Colony Correctional Center inmate at the State House. Several council members focused on Shabazz' service in Vietnam, subsequent drug addiction, and the many rehabilitation, education, and service programs he's participated in behind bars.

In 1971, Shabazz (then known as James Hall) and an accomplice ambushed two men who were refilling a Dorchester grocery store's cash supply. They shot them and made off with nearly $20,000.

Before voting for the commutation, which lessens Shabazz' conviction from first-degree murder to second-degree, Councilor Joseph Ferreira said Wednesday that he had "mixed feelings" about his vote.

"If you commit murder with extreme atrocity or cruelty, or pre-meditated, deliberate malice of forethought, you lied in wait and you killed somebody, you're there for life. And that's exactly what he did," Ferreira said, before adding that he was ultimately moved by the convict's rehabilitation and by the lack of opposition from victims' relatives or prosecutors.

Councilor Marilyn Pettito Devaney said it was "all about" drugs.

"Going to Vietnam, he got involved in drugs, and that's what happened with the tragic incident that he was involved in," Devaney said, referring to the homicides. "But in the 51 years, he has not only rehabilitated himself, but other people -- and has been such a role model."

Gov. Charlie Baker last month recommended commuting Shabazz' sentence so that he could be eligible for parole, writing that while the crime was "horrific," he "has not only taken full responsibility for his actions but has also dedicated his life in prison to bettering himself and serving as a mentor to others in prison."

"I caused both men's deaths. I'm the reason why Mr. [Calvin] Thorn and Mr. [Harry] Jeffreys didn't return to their families on Aug. 14, 1971," Shabazz said Tuesday.

"Because of my actions, ... the only way Mr. Thorn and Mr. Jeffreys' grandchildren can see them is at their grandfather's gravesite in the cemetery. Because of me," he said, adding that on past prison furloughs he would visit the site of the Dorchester grocery store to "say a prayer to Mr. Thorn and Mr. Jeffreys."

He said he has tried to participate in "every program available" at the correctional facilities he has been incarcerated in. A Parole Board report shows he is currently enrolled in groups for prison fellowship, anger management, trauma and resiliency, veterans, and Islamic services and studies. Prison programs, he said, have led to "internalization of personal growth and learning."

He described participation in a "very selective" companion program working with mentally ill patients, a "difficult" job that required "listening skills, coping skills." He has also worked as the law library clerk in several prisons and tutored GED students at Bridgewater State Hospital.

While studying for his master's degree behind bars, which he earned in 1995 through Boston University, Shabazz said he wrote a thesis about incarcerated Vietnam veterans so that "hopefully, somewhere down the line, someone would wake up and say, 'What about incarcerated Vietnam veterans? Let's help them.'"

It was in Vietnam that he became addicted to LSD within days, he said -- "my body just absorbed it" -- and he said he was on LSD when he committed his crimes in Dorchester.

"I never was a drug user, alcohol, anything. I was a hard-working young man at the time when I was drafted. ... Got to Vietnam, morale there at the time I got there was very, very low. Men were refusing orders, men were still dying. ... Everyone was on drugs. Everyone was on drugs," he said.

After returning to Massachusetts, Shabazz said he went to the local VA hospital but was told that "there's a lot of you guys coming back from Vietnam and we don't know what's wrong with you." He said he has since been treated for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and is currently in a PTSD group with other veterans.